This time, SMU’s comeback was good for an American Athletic Conference victory.

For the second time this season in their new conference, the
Mustangs wiped out a 21-point deficit Saturday.

They also won the game over Temple 59-49.

Trailing by 21 points during the second quarter, SMU scored 45
after halftime in a record-setting explosion.

Mustangs head coach June Jones was a prophet at halftime, when
they trailed 28-14.

“I told them that we gave (Temple) everything that they had. I
challenged our defense to stop them on the first series, and then if the offense
scored on their first series we were going to win the game.”

The defense pushed the Owls back five yards in a three-and-out
first series. Quarterback Garrett Gilbert drove SMU 78 yards for a touchdown.
The Mustangs won the game.

Gilbert finished the game with a school record 538 passing yards,
four touchdown passes and 97 yards and two more TDs rushing. His passing yards
and SMU’s 728 yards of offense were the most ever against Temple. The
quarterback’s 635 yards of total offense were an SMU record and the
seventh-highest total in FBS history.

Jones said, “Garrett has played extremely well. He’s competing,
and he gives us a tremendous advantage.”

“Gilbert’s a tremendous quarterback,” Owls head coach Matt Rhule
said. “We saw what he did in the end of the game against Rutgers.”

In that game, Gilbert had brought SMU back from a 35-14
fourth-quarter deficit before his team lost in triple overtime. That day, he set
the record of 484 passing yards that he broke Saturday.

For the Owls (1-7, 0-4 conference), freshman P.J. Walker
completed his first 16 passes, including three for touchdowns.

Walker finished 26 for 37 for 293 yards and four touchdowns, and
led Temple with 92 yards and another TD rushing. For the first time in his three
starts since taking over from junior Connor Reilly, Walker did not throw an
interception.

Temple’s Robby Anderson had a career day with nine catches for
239 yards and his first two collegiate touchdowns.

SMU linebacker Randall Joyner said, “Definitely they surprised
us. We’d seen them on film. We knew they were transitioning to the spread, but
the switch at quarterback makes things go.”

After the Mustangs scored on Traylon Shead’s 11-yard run, the
Owls took a 14-7 lead on Anderson’s scoring catches. Walker hit Anderson on a
screen pass, and the sophomore raced behind blockers for a 42-yard touchdown. On
the next possession, Anderson got behind SMU’s defense to catch an end-around
pass from wide receiver Jalen Fitzpatrick for an 83-yard TD.

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